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NASA Audio File

On Nov. 2, 2000, Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd and Flight Engineers Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko became the first residents of the space station. Since then, 200 explorers have visited the orbiting complex, 15 nations have contributed modules and hardware, and more than 600 experiments have been conducted aboard the station NASA celebrated the 10th anniversary of human life, work and research on the International Space Station (ISS) with an Oct. 27 series of roundtable discussions and special interviews.

The events at three NASA centers and headquarters in Washington will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website www.nasa.gov/ntv, and feature former space station residents, key leaders and team members who have guided the station through its first 10 years.

Following are excerpts of a presentation by SPACELAB 2 Science-Pilot Joe Kerwin speaking about his life aboard Skylab and the early years of the International Space Station at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

(:30) My bottom line is that there are a lot of good uses for the space station, but it's never where you want your trip to end. It's a way to get you there, and that's what the International Space Station is, and a space station to be fully useful has got to be part of a robust system of space transportation vehicles and other satelittes. It has to be part of this system. The space station by itself would be like Disneyland in 1810. It'd be great if you could get to California but you can't! › Play Now

(:12) We wrote our conclusion and I stated it as follows: The study group respectfully would thus advise the nation "We built a railroad into space and now we need a station."› Play Now

(:18) We life sciences types wanna use the International Space Station to finish getting ready for deep space, perfecting countermeasures, understanding radiation, and some more things. We can do that, and we will. And then we'll see where NASA is ready to go from there. › Play Now